Thursday, June 27, 2013

The process from this point starts to get a bit chaotic. Too many things uncertain lead to many different lines of work at the same time. I will start painting but also find that the sculpture needs retouching... and the base... well, the base would need a whole separate story. The next two chapters will tell stories of failure and sttubornness. You'll see...

Time for the priming of base and dragon.

Once primed in white, I'm going to give the base a little coat of black so that it takes better the brownish dark colours that I'm going to use on it.

The process in the base is simple, but complicated at the same time. I want to create sea waves crashing in the rock, and that will be an effect which might be difficult to achieve. Even so, the process should be simple. First I will paint the whole base with the rock colours, and all the elements in the scenery. Then I will use resin water to create the water on top of that. The colours in the base are not a big problem because they will probably be covered by the water. So, first brown base with Dark Brown from Andrea, all airbrushed.

Adding blues and greens to the mix, and also different quantities of black to create the first shadows.

Some reds also will work well.

And more blacks.

I'll get some of the light back by airbrushing with some lighter ocre.

I am using some blue and green inks from Andrea in some areas.

Let's look at the dragon primed white on top of the painted brown base.

Let's see how the rider looks on top of the dragon.

It looks cool, but it's not exactly what I am looking for. The rider does not really look like pulling the reins. So even though I already primed the dragon, seems like the rider needs some more adjustments. The head of the rider is not fixed to the body, so I can play with it (which is very important because it will provide all strength and weight to the pose). The left arm however, needs some modifications, and it is fixed to the body. So here I decide that the best thing to do is redo the whole left arm.

And with the wire of the left arm exposed, I can see that the right arm is only a bit odd. I need to change that one also. Shit happens.

But it's not so bad. It shouldn't be a lot of work. Here's the left arm redone.

And here's how the guy looks on top, with both arms redone.

Ok, now the guy has way more strength in the pulling of the reins, but still, there's something wrong. I believe it's the legs, too straight. Nobody said this would be easy!

The left leg will bend slightly, so that we suggest that all the weight of the left side of the rider is on the left arm pulling the reins, and not on the leg. The left leg is actually loose, so the rider's weight is basically sustained by the right leg and the left arm pulling the rein.

Because of what I just said, the right arm might need to also bend a little bit. But I'm not sure about that. That is why I'm going to move on to work on something else while I decide.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Ever since I saw their crowdfunding initiative, I knew there was something really cool going on. Look what I just picked up from the post!

These guys are sexy!

This is the first initiative that I know of to create something like this. I know that it must have been a huge nightmare for Raffa and Roman because the crowdfunding exceeded all expectations and making a book of this TREMENDOUS QUALITY with so much attention to detail is incredibly difficult. But all the effort and suffering has finally come to an end and we can all enjoy this wonderful book. It is a true honour for me to have it at home, I will cherish it and go through its pages every night before I go to sleep.

Monday, June 24, 2013

And now it's time for the second part of the review of the Spring Angel 2013 experience!

Wow! And there's even a second part to the Spring Angel 2013 review!

Obviously the miniatures are the reason behind the Spring Angel. And behind every other contest, for sure. But when the contest itself ends, and the miniatures are no longer the stars of the movie, it's when the real magic begins. You've seen this in other events earlier this year such as The Painting Crusade. When we reach this point it's when everything makes sense. All the hard work from Katy and Sergey, all the hours of painting from all the participants, the neverending bureaucracy to get the visa to enter Russia, the 5 hour flight inconvenience...

This, my friends, is the graphic collection of reasons why...
YOU HAVE TO ATTEND THE SUMMER ANGEL NEXT YEAR 2014.

A true puzzle to get all my minis to Moscow!

Russian feast at Katy&Sergey's

Of course, everything is watered with Vodka and Bourbon

Celebrating Russian style

The hotel holding the event

Auditorium before the doors opened

Ben Komets the happy guy

Matt & Girlfriend cuddling

Astonished Matt

Fake discussion between judges

The holy judge trinity

Jose has a question for the painting demo

View from the painting demo table

Matt reviews the paints

Jose behaving like a true spaniard at the free breakfast

Moscow streets

Ben Komets

Katy, always connected

And talking on the phone

Matt & Girlfriend happy to be in Moscow

Proof of Russian dress codes

Kremlin tower

Being cool painters in Moscow

Matt's Girlfriend (I DO know her name but I will never say it!)

Dmitry "Lynx"

Jose visiting the Kremlin chapels

Kremlin chapels

More Kremlin chapels

Super Cannon

Not so super cannons

Inside the Kremlin

Ben is threatened

Matt manipulated his girlfriend into killing Ben

Jose breaks a giant bell at the surprise gaze of a young Russian girl

Moscow signs (fortunately some English)

Sergey

Matt's Girlfriend

Entering the Red Square

Matt's understanding of Russian

Katy&Sergey

Katy&Sergey

Jose&Andrey

Russian statue reading on his iPad

A McDonald's Big Mac ad in Russian

Moscow luxury malls

Being all touristy

Matt

Matt's girlfriend

Me in front of St. Nicholas basilica

Tetris!

Playing Kremlin gives you two sad faces (tribute for nerds of Through the Ages)

Jose&Ben&Me and St. Nicholas basilica

The youngsters at St. Nicholas basilica

The treason of the polish

Lenin's mausoleum

The Kremlin walls

The huge Red Square

Yes, turn right (in Russian)

Danger! Gas death! (in Russian)

Matt's girlfriend against paparazzi

Matt and girlfriend surprised by paparazzi

The group surprised by paparazzi

The real paparazzi pic

McRussian

Desperation in front of Kirill's masterpieces

Studying and learning from the master

Frustration

Katy showing a teaser of their Warhammer armies collection

Ben's emotion to the big surprise

Me at the verge of crying

Too much vodka breaks glasses

The difficult decision

Post contest award ceremony

The real best of show ceremony

The real best of show

Being all stupid&drunk

My harvest of Spring Angel

Thanks to all the people who made the Spring Angel 2013 possible. Our best wishes go to Katy and Sergey and all his family and friends. See you next year for sure!